Comentario citado sobre Deuteronómio 2:16

I sought him but found him not: Throughout those forty years, the shekhinah had departed and prophecy had ceased. As it is written: “When all the warriors among the people had died off, the Lord spoke to me, saying …” [Deut. 2:16–17]. To me was the Word. This reveals that Moses had not prophesied until this moment.

I sought him but found him not: Throughout those forty years, the shekhinah had departed and prophecy had ceased. As it is written: “When all the warriors among the people had died off, the Lord spoke to me, saying …” [Deut. 2:16–17]. To me was the Word. This reveals that Moses had not prophesied until this moment.

לאמר SAYING — This implies “Go and speak to them words that will bring them to a subdued frame of mind):‘It is for your sake that He communicates with me’!” And indeed we find this was so; for all the thirty — eight years during which Israel in the wilderness were placed, as it were, under excommunication — from the time of the incident of the spies and onwards — there was no intimate conversation of God with Moses, for it is said, (Deuteronomy 2:16, 17) “So it came to pass, when were consumed all the men of war (i. e. the men who had waged war immediately after the return of the spies; cf. Numbers 14:40—45. It was they and their generation who wandered in the wilderness as though excommunicated) … that the Lord spake unto me, saying, …” — only then was a divine communication again made to me (Sifra). Another explanation of לאמר is that it means “to speak to God”: it implies, “Go and tell them My commands and bring Me back word whether they will accept them, as it is said, (Exodus 19:8) “And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord (Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Nedavah, Chapter 2 13).